Alphabet Squadron (Star Wars)

This story is meadering, the characters inconsistent and unlikeable. I do not care about what happens to them...about a third through I started skimming, and now at just over half I quit.For a $.99 self published book I can forgive much, but if this is the 'new' Star Wars count me out. Especially at $15!

It's probably unfair to hold up a new series to the classic X-Wing novels, but for better or worse that is what almost everyone I talk to was hoping for out of Alphabet Squadron. This book isn't that, but does have the same generic theme of trying to pull together a squadron from scraps. Alphabet Squadron is a more serious, somber take on the Rebellion/New Republic and lacks the chipper tone that X-Wing had. It also dives much deeper into each character though, and I found that a rewarding experience to go beyond the basics for each pilot and explore their motivations at a core level. I'm happy to have read it, and look forward to the next two books. It's got the potential to grow into a strong series on its own.

I was looking forward to this book but I found the characters too contrived. It is almost as of there was a SJW checklist - all leaders women, LGBTQIA characters etc. Such characters are fine and need to be included but the virtual absence of male combat leaders seems odd and the LGBTQIA characters seem to be forced rather than pilots who just happen to be not heterosexual. The development of the characters and scenarios did not seem natural and it did jar the story for me. The combat scenes were very good and rank highly among Star Wars novels of this genre. As to the characters, they are underdeveloped. Maybe this will be rectified later. However, I was very disappointed in the portrayal of Hera Syndulla. She's portrayed here as a dedicated General. One slight problem- where's her son? Not even a mention would be out of character for her. In all, Freed's characters don't work for me and despite a good story and some good battle scenes, the book does not live up to its potential.

A good and entertaining read, especially relative to some of the other "canon" books Lucasfilm has come out with recently. Alexander Freed is a decent author and I think he should be give other opportunities to write SW books. I would have given it 5 stars, but you can tell that Pablo Hidalgo had a hand in shaping this story. There were a lot of "San Francisco values" in this book. He seems to be too focused on Twitter while at work, which detracts from the quality of work he puts out. Pablo, you seem to be decently talented, but word of advice brother: leave your phone at the door.

Why did I like Rogue One so much? And to some extent, Solo? No space wizards or force wielders… The Star Wars galaxy needs more stories about regular dudes. The men and women in the trenches, gun-wells, and cockpits. The complicated heroes and, not so heroic characters, who fight on both sides. The Force is discussed in passing in the novel as junk science, fake news, hocus pocus… nothing these rank soldiers ever deal with.The stories of Yrica Quell, Nath Tensent, and Adan Caern. Each drawn to the rebellion for different reasons. Yrica is a recent defector who switched sides after the Empire’s first counter attack after Endor. She’s seen too much of the cruelty and decides it may be time to use her knowledge to help the Rebellion. Nath has a bit of Han Solo in him. He’s content to make his money on a little out-of-the-way station after his own defection. Adan is the organizer of the Alphabet Squadron, and it isn’t too clear about what motivates him to serve. But they all gravitate towards a common goal: Vengence.The core story arc focuses on the formation of a new squadron in order to hunt down an elite fleet of Tie Fighters. The 204th is still out there doing the dead Emperor’s dirty work.I’ve got a list of things I loved:1. A fully fleshed-out cast of five pilots. What brought them to the rebellion… and what are their motivations to join the Alphabet Squadron?2. Space dog fights… a plethora of different ships… A, B, Y, X, U- Wings!3. Favorite Quote: ‘… but there was truth to the idea that the Empire valued squadrons and the Rebellion valued pilots.’4. Some excellent cameos from past SW stories. I don’t want to give up any spoilers, but I think Freed does a great job integrating some less-heralded characters into the mix.5. The last battle. I was riveted for the last quarter of the book. Most of my favorite SW films and novels come down to a creative battle plan.. and there’s a distinct difference between a Rebel plan and an Imperial plan. Freed shows that difference, proves it on every page.6. New droids. In the first chapter, we meet an Imperial interrogation droid named IT-O who has been reprogramed into a psychologist of sorts for the defectors. And a couple new X-Wing mechs to help out in the midst of battle… also, a straight-up eerie dark side robot…7. Storytelling: Every character is given a chance to tell his/her story, and Freed’s storytelling changes nicely between the confessional or disinformational spills…Highly Recommended for those looking for a multi-layered exploration into the grunts of the Star Wars universe.

This book had a promising start and seemed to have built up an interesting premise. The opening battle or two had me hooked. However, as I progressed through the book, I gradually found it to be a jarring read to the point where I cared very little about the characters and plotline.The novel’s structure from a storytelling perspective is pretty messy. It frequently jumps from character perspective to character perspective, and at times it pushes in a lot of exposition which repetitively throws in events with little detail which are treated more like background action instead of concurrent foreground happenings, which was something I also had an issue with regarding Twilight Company. There are certain terminologies and curse words that get used a lot as well; I wish I kept a tally of how much the words “squadron” and “bastard” were used, similar to how “fresh meat” was implemented so many blasted times in Twilight Company. The chapters with a character called Devon seem like an afterthought and felt disconnected from the main story, disrupting the flow of the overall narrative. Another low point is that we barely get a flavour of the opposing side since it’s so heavily focused on the New Republic.Having such a mixed battlegroup consisting of five drastically different craft types was also a much bolder move than I initially thought, and although I won’t say much else regarding spoilers I think the group’s fate may leave one scratching their heads due to the fighter/spaceship imbalances (and this is one of the rare occasions I'll be siding with the plot armour concept). The characters are also rather flat at times as well, and it’s difficult to know whether the author wants us to root for them or downright hate them (I mean, I find it weird that the Republic intelligence agent who oversees the squadron's formation comes across as an alcoholic git for reasons unspecified). Again, this was something I had gripes with while reading Twilight Company.The sci-fi technobabble in this novel is pretty poor, too. The names for the characters, worlds, systems and starships are forgettable at best and unimaginative at worst, and all this is oversaturated the book and feels excessive. At least in the Stackpole and Allston X-wing novels the technobabble was basic but had lot of depth, thus focusing on the quality of the series’ technical aspects rather than the quantity. I know it may not be a fair comparison, but the differences are pretty big between X-wing and Alphabet Squadron. It depends what you want to get out of a Star Wars novel these days. There also appears to be a bit of fan service to Rogue One which doesn’t appear to add much to the plot, similar to how the Battle of Hoth got shoved in during Twilight Company’s story. Everything feels forced and has little substance.All in all, this book tries hard to be its own thing but ultimately falls flat, consequently feeling disconnected from the overall Star Wars universe and ends up being a bland and jarring read.

On the whole, I did quite enjoy this novel, but at times it felt a bit drawn out and rather slow. I don't think it needed to be as long as it was. I actually had to take a break from it for a while as I was losing interest.I was most intrigued about the setting of the book, which takes place soon after the destruction of the Empire and relates quite a bit to the Battlefront II game, in terms of Operation Cinder. I find this timeframe really interesting to see how the galaxy is fairing under the New Republic.Unfortunately, my interest soon waned as I struggled to relate to any of the characters. I didn't find the plot particularly interesting either - essentially a squadron is formed to take down another squadron. I was also a little disappointed that the companion comic didn't really tie in with the novel at all. Yes, there we a couple of characters that were in both, but no more than that.After reading I've learned that this is the first part of a trilogy. I'll certainly read the next two instalments to see if the storyline picks up and the characters become a little more interesting, but I'm not super excited for it.

I really did enjoy this book, and would give it 4 stars for the story but the extra star for potential. It is a bit slow at the beginning but this is good as it setting up completely new characters.The book is set in the transition era of (Disney) Star Wars. Six months after the Battle of Endor. The Empire has just been defeated, the new government is taking over, but in the frontlines the fighting continues. The New Republic gaining ground inch by inch, the stattered Empire now having to use gorilla and scorched earth tactics. This is the introduction to the 204th Imperial unit known as Shadow Wing. This book is the sequel to the Tie Fighter comics.Imperials have three defect, disappear, or carry on fighting in the name of the dead Emperor. None of these choices are easy especially for the late defectors. Now a New Republic intelligence offices has made it his mission to take down Shadow Wing, for his own agenda, to do this he need the help of a defector formerly from that unit. He also recruits a patch work number of individuals/pilots as different as their fighters types. Each has their own reason for joining and their own secret. Is even a common enemy enough to keep this unit together.Being a huge fan of Star Wars and the Expanded Universe, I am glad that Disney decided on this approach. They are using their own characters (including a legend of their own TV series making), and developing them. Also they are doing it in an era that the EU largely ignored. The transition of power and government was very quick in the original universe, and the legendary characters from the universe I grew up with lived on expanding their legacies. If any of these characters were used in the book my first reaction would be to compare them to how I envisioned them (from the original movies and the EU), to how they were portrayed here. I really like and respect developing their own characters, and truly see potential in this book series.

I’m a big fan of the X-Wing novels from the Legends timeline so as soon as it was announced that a new starfighter series was in the works I was really excited. Nothing could replace those books, but as far as I’m concerned Star Wars isn’t Star Wars without its starfighter squadrons. Throw in Hera Syndulla who I fell in love within Star Wars Rebels and I’m sold!Prior to reading this novel, I read the accompanying comic series, Star Wars: TIE Fighter by Chuck Wendig) which had been extremely disappointing. I clung to the link to the TIE Fighter comic series and reminded myself that one novel didn’t necessarily mean that all the new canon novels were going to be disappointing. The new comics have been absolutely brilliant. And so, I went into this book with an open mind…… and I was thoroughly disappointed.Let me start with the blatant lie I mentioned in the synopsis and go from there."In the aftermath, Yrica Quell is just one of thousands of defectors from her former cause living in a deserters’ shantytown–until she is selected to join Alphabet Squadron. Cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of pilots and starfighters, the five members of Alphabet are tasked by New Republic general Hera Syndulla herself. "As I mentioned I’m a big fan of Hera so the idea of a new squadron run by her sounded awesome. In hindsight the synopsis only makes it sound like she is running the show, so I’ll give them that, it’s careful wordplay - it’s just a name drop to draw in fans of Star Wars Rebels.Other than Hera the book is made up of brand new characters and there are a lot of them. Too many, to be honest. There are four separate narratives happening at the same time; Alphabet Squadron, Shadowing Squadron, the Imperial commanders and group of New Republic Military. The last group seems quite random at the start, and as the novel progresses their identity becomes evident. What confused me was how much effort was put into their narratives. The role they play in the novel didn’t require the amount of characterisation and detail that the author chose to go into, and many scenes regarding those characters seemed to be fluff to just bulk out the novel. Even when I realised who these characters were I didn’t feel the need to know anywhere near as much detail about them as I now did.In comparison, I knew almost nothing about the main characters, the actual Alphabet Squadron. Being cagey and mysterious about your characters is one thing, but there’s a problem when you’re giving the reader a full character history of minor characters they’ll never meet again. I felt absolutely no empathy or bond to any of the main characters, and that’s a big problem. The only interest I had in them by the end of the book was to unravel their mysteries and that will only go so far for me.For a novel which is built around a space fighter squadron, there were not that many space battles, at least for Alphabet Squadron itself. Most of the space battles scenes didn’t involve them, and for most of the book, they were out of the cockpit. It felt more like a spy novel than a space pilot one. The series has potential, although this does depend on what happens in the next novel. The members of Alphabet Squadron have enough personality, quirks and history that could be the foundation for a really good series. The problem is all the other junk in between. There is so much political rubbish in this novel whereas all I really wanted was for them to get in their ships and do what star pilots do best. I really feel like the author completely misunderstood what he was getting himself into when he signed up to write a series called Alphabet Squadron. If you want to go write a military novel, fine, but don’t label it a starfighter novel and drop a name like Hera Syndulla just so people will pick it up!

I honestly am. I have really struggled with the first 4-5 chapters of this novel as they are incredibly tedious. They storytelling is dry and uninteresting. The character development doesn’t grab your attention and make you want to find out more.The only other Star Wars (new canon) novel that I had similar issues with was ‘Twilight Company’, which is also written by Alexander Freed... probably not a coincidence!Very disappointed so far.